We are DSAR [Drone Search And Rescue) - a volunteer Drone Search & Rescue organization in the Southeast United States cofounded in Jan 2019 by three pilots. We are composed entirely of volunteers who fly their own drones. We meet quarterly for training on search & rescue techniques in the southeast U.S. in different locations central to all participants. (We are willing to consider travel to other locations in the U.S. provided someone organizes the training event and gathers sufficient pilots to make it worthwhile. In such cases we would train for two days - on a Saturday and Sunday.) We train on different drone search techniques on different terrain and for different missions. Drones are a great tool, but UAS pilots can't save lives by themselves. Teamwork and training matter. (Read the Drone Use page.)

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Any drone pilot is welcome to participate in training with us, but only 107-certified pilots can engage in real-world SAR missions. There is no cost for training itself, other than sharing any site rental costs, food, your travel to the training site and any expenses associated with operating your own drone. We recommend drone pilots flying real-world SAR missions be insured for injury and property damage liability, as well as carry hull insurance. We are exploring procuring group liability and hull insurance (after 501c3 incorporation) for all DSAR registry pilots when flying real-world SAR.

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Everyone is encouraged to bring their own drone. Anything from a Spark/Bebop/Breeze up is enough for realistic training. Training includes:

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• preplanning waypoint flights

• flying advanced waypoint flights

• flying orbits

• efficient utilization of drone resources

• Drone search techniques: i.e., Route (line), Grid, Expanding Square, Parallel Line, Creeping Line, Helix, etc.

• techniques for searching different kinds of terrain

• multiple drone operations

• joint operations with ground search teams

• importance of solid incident onsite command structure

• working with onsite command structure

• equipment a drone pilot should ideally show up with on a SAR mission

• etc.

 

Collectively putting our ideas, experience and wisdom, we seek to be a valuable on-call drone resource for agencies called upon to perform search & rescue.

 

Use the contact page to get in touch with us if you are interested in participating or want to request our service.

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